We have learned how to use a WebView to render a third-party website as an embedded part of our app. However, sometimes, we might want to use the native browser to open a site, link to other native system applications (such as email, phone, and SMS), or even deep link to a completely separate app.
In this recipe, we will link to an external site via both the native browser and a browser modal within our app, create links to the phone and messaging applications, and create a deep link that will open the Slack app and automatically load the #general channel in the gitconnected.com Slack group.
You will need to run this app on a real device in order to open the links in this app that use the device's system applications, such as email, phone, and SMS links. In my experience, this will not work in the simulator.